Let's see here. Savant was an ardent Hammer fan as a child, being one of a mob of happy kids cheering
Horror of Dracula
and
The Curse of Frankenstein
when they were reissued in 1964. I had actually seen
The Mummy
at the age of seven and it was one of the earliest and most exciting times
I had in a movie theater. But I stopped going in around 1966 or so, when the thrill quotient dropped
off radically. The current Mummy and Frankenstein sequels were pretty tired rehashes,
and Rasputin, the Mad Monk was one of the first films to which my friends gave a firm
'thumbs down'. So
I saved my movie dollars for science fiction shows, a safer bet at the time. A Hammer chiller
that didn't let the fans down was an anomaly called Plague of the Zombies. One of two titles
shot back-to-back by veteran director John Gilling, it continued the Bray line of quality with something
that hadn't been seen in several years, a cracking good script.

Synopsis:

Respected doctor Sir James Forbes (André Morell) is called to remote Cornwall with his daughter
Sylvia (Diane Clare) to help local practitioner Peter Tompson (Brook Williams) deal with an outbreak
of sudden illnesses. The superstitious locals have forbidden autopies, and the two doctors
are soon caught opening the grave of a recent victim by local constable Swift (Michael Ripper). When
the grave is found empty, Swift agrees to help get to the bottom of the mystery, but not before
Sylvia sees the body of Peter's wife Alice (Jacqueline Pearce) being carried by a horrid ghoul
near an abandoned tin mine. It turns out that the local squire Hamilton (John Carson) has
brought certain exotic pagan secret rituals back from abroad, that require fresh corpses and
warm blood ...

Plague of the Zombies is that happy accident, a good thriller at at time when Hammer Films was
sliding into a rut. Hammer's color productions looked far worse than they had a decade before,
when the consummate talent of Terence Fisher repeatedly made less look like more. A generic
sameness had crept in. Overuse of the same redressed sets (especially the two manor houses
that served as Hammer headquarters) had taken its toll. After a few interesting failures, Hammer
scripts became increasingly formulaic, often using their entire running time to cover familiar ground,
and never really getting to 'fresh' material.

Plague stood out from the pack, which is why Savant is reviewing a DVD release over
two years old. At first glance it should be one of the dull Hammers - the title does have the word
Zombie in it, and it takes the cast about an hour to figure out what we already know. But the superior
script is what makes all the difference. This time the locals are given good reasons to be
in denial about the dark goings-on. The local constable is a stalwart ally instead of the usual comic
relief. And the villainous squire actually has an economic motivation for reanimating corpses that may
be a sly comment on labor politics. The economical script really covers two ongoing
investigations. The doctors very formally exhume bodies and challenge the squire, keeping young
Sylvia out of the picture. She, however, is both victim and and investigator behind their backs,
running a parallel course that keeps us off balance. Instead of a predictable passive dunce, Sylvia
makes key connections, such as the bandaged fingers, on her own. With so much 'discovery' going on,
few events need to be explained verbally.

Plague can boast some unpredictable story elements, such as a very surprising dream sequence
that breaks the standard Hammer format with some subtle image stylization. Good use is also made of
classic Hammer imagery when a pack of delinquent young hellions in their red blazers show up, as if
escaped from
The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Lastly, Sir James is not above utilizing
class snobbery to his advantage, when it becomes necessary to intimidate a houseful of opponents. At
a time when English films were very anti-upperclass, this ploy reminds us of Peter Cushing baiting the
Egyptian zealot in The Mummy. The best Hammer scripts, even when Anglocentric or racist
(The Stranglers of Bombay) show a fine understanding of Class as a weapon.

As a production, this zombie movie is as threadbare as any Hammer film from the same time, but the story
interest makes all the difference. Some of the set redressings are extremely clever, and you forget
for a moment to look off to the left and say, "Yeah, that little walkway used to go to Dracula's
crypt ..." Hammer makeup regular Roy Ashton did the effective Zombie makeups, and between this
and sister feature The Reptile, 1966 was one of his best years.

The happy result is a diverting mystery that actually has a couple of frightening moments - which is
praise for the 'old-fashioned' Hammer studio; it's usually their style that fans gush over. Savant
is pretty critical of later Hammer and has little use for some of the most popular titles, but Plague
works, which is a compliment for any horror film. There's menace and immediacy to the zombie threat,
and even a slightly familiar ending can't harm the feeling of substance about the picture.

It must have been a great annoyance to Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Terence Fisher that they didn't
directly benefit from the millions of dollars their artistry earned at Hammer. Later articles have given
the impression that Lee's reluctance to reappear as The Count was less an artistic decision and
more a matter of being dunned with even
lower pay offers than he had received before. It is true that Hammer's more elaborate ventures (These
Are the Damned, for one) were costly failures. But it doesn't look as if their huge initial profits
were ploughed back into the studio. This probably is why Plague has a no-star cast.

In this case, the second-stringers do excellent work. André Morell carries the picture with
ease, with the interesting Jacqueline Pearce (The Reptile) and Diane Clare (Witchcraft. John Carson doesn't
have the stature of Chris Lee or the depraved aspect of Charles Gray, but instead plays a convincing
gentleman to whom a young lady
might give the benefit of the doubt in a situation like this one. The big hero of the day
is Michael Ripper, an underused character actor who does excellent work as the intelligent constable.
If you're not familiar with Ripper, you'll like him - he looks kind of like the thug brother of Mickey
Rooney or Richard Attenborough.

Anchor Bay's DVD of Plague of the Zombies

1
is their standard excellent 16:9 transfer, with vibrant color that is especially careful to give the
aforementioned dream sequence a subtle weird look. Arthur Grant's photography is not in the old Technicolor
style, but still has the lushness of the early years, that the later films lost. Included on the disc are
a set of theatrical trailers that demonstrate the 'kiddie' marketing schemes Hammer fell prey to - clearly,
when they went R - rated a few seasons later, they abandoned their only solid audience. If you can
still find copies in the stores, this rates a worthy looksee.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,Plague of the Zombiesrates:Movie: Very Good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Trailer, embarassing 'World of Hammer' featurettePackaging: Keep case
Reviewed: May 4, 2001

Footnotes:

1.It's always funny when a typo makes this title Plaque of the Zombies,
a movie about dental nightmares, I suppose.Return

2.The Brides of Dracula is a good movie,
one of the Hammer classics,
but even it suffers terribly in the structure department, arriving at its first really important
confrontation just as the movie is ending. All dressed up with two sexy Vampire brides and a barnful
of hay, and, whups! Curtain time.Return